Why does "llamada" mean "called"?

[createdamadman]

So I have the following sentence:




"Trabajo para una compañía llamada Wheeler and Sons."




Now I would've expected "que se llama". And "llamada" seems to be a noun. So I'm confused why it is used here but according to context.reverso.net, it does seem to translate to "called" or "named" often.



What's going on here, and is this just an odd exception or are there other examples where this happens?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Llamado" is actually a past participle.
- ¿Ha llamado Juan? -> Has Juan called?
- No he llamado a mi esposa en todo el día. -> I haven't called my wife the whole day.
- Jefe, los clientes han llamado varias veces. -> Boss, the clients have called several times.

Now, "llamada" may be a noun, when it means communication or some sort of connection:
- Hice una llamada a Japón. -> I made a phone call to Japan.
- Recibí una llamada del banco. -> I got a phone call from the bank.
- Estas mujeres escucharon la llamada de Dios y se volvieron monjas. -> These women listened to the call of God and they became nuns.

But when you have "llamado"/"llamada" together with a noun (or, in this case, a proper noun), it is an adjective. In English past participles have a similar role. The difference is that in Spanish, when "llamado" becomes an adjective, it agrees in gender and number with the noun:
- Tenía una amiga llamada María. -> I had a friend called Maria.
- Las Islas Malvinas, también llamadas Falkland Islands, pertenecen al Reino Unido. -> The Islas Malvinas, also called Falkland Islands, belong to the United Kingdom.
- Los Juegos Olímpicos, llamados así porque se celebraban en la ciudad de Olimpia, se realizan cada cuatro años. -> The Olympic Games, called like that because they were originally celebrated in the city of Olympia, are held every four years.
- El autor del libro, llamado Jorge Luis Borges, es uno de los mejores escritores en lengua Española. -> The author of the book, called Jorge Luis Borges, is one of the best writers in Spanish language.

[Rusty]

The word 'llamada' is the participio of the verb 'llamar', and it's being used as an adjective. Therefore, its ending must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies.

In both English and Spanish, a participle is derived from a verb, but never functions as such.

English has both a present and a past participle. Using 'call' as the verb from which these participles are derived, for instance, the present participle is 'calling', and the past participle is 'called'.

The Spanish terms for these derivatives are 'gerundio' and 'participio', respectively.

Your attempt to substitute an adjectival clause (conjunction + verb) for the adjective that is used in the original sentence is a valid replacement in both languages. In other words, 'que se llama' is equal to 'that is called'.

But a correct translation of 'una compañía llamada' is 'a company called'.

To answer your last question, if you want to use an adjective to describe a noun, that adjective can be a 'past participle' in English o 'participio' en español (both being equivalent terms playing the same roles).

(I see that AngelicaDeAlquezar gave you the same answer (except that she also indicated that sometimes a verbal (verb derivative) can be a noun).)

[createdamadman]

Okay, thank you. Another somewhat related question.. I see that I can say "fue llamado" to mean "was called". Is that interchangeable with "se llamó"?

[Rusty]

Your first example makes use of the passive voice (voz pasiva). That construction isn't used nearly as much as we use it in English.

Your second example would be preferred over using the passive voice, assuming you have a subject (expressed or already established) and a direct object (expressed or already established). If used in this manner, this is the passive 'se' (pasiva refleja) construction.

(There are many uses for the pronoun 'se' in Spanish. Another is the impersonal 'se'. This is used to speak in generalities, where no particular individual is referenced. There are plenty of places online that describe the difference between the two forms mentioned here.)